Topic: Soooooooo Angry !

[flowerofshona2007]

I ordered my dahlia cuttings Oct 1st last year, all paid for ect from Wincheter growers (nat dahlia collection) and recieved them yesterday with 9 !!! subs out off 26 !!!!!!
The ones they sent me are not even CLOSE to the ones i ordered ie red/yellow medium semi cactus ordered and a pink small catus sent !!!!
If this was just for the garden i would not mind to much but these where to top up my show stock !
Rang them and they really couldnt give a dam !
Now the rest i ordered from Station house dahlias and they are twice the size and all that i ordered !
Do NOT order from winchester growers if you really want what you order !
Ok rant over  >:(

[saddad]

Substitutes can be really annoying... The only "company" I tick the substitutes box with is HSL... where anything can be interesting...  :-X

[ber77tie]

sorry to read about the substitutes.You obviously know about Dahlias so I wonder could you let me know if the cuttings you are talking about actually flower in the first season. I was thinking of buying some as they were cheaper than tubers but didn't think they would flower.

[flowerofshona2007]

Yes the cuttings will flower this year and when showing we dont use tubers for anything but taking cuttings  :)
You will prob be to late to get cuttings this year ( i ordered mine last October ! )

[Hector]

Sorry to hear this :( If Station House Nursery is the one in Wirral, they are really nice genuine folk.)

[ber77tie]

Yes the cuttings will flower this year and when showing we dont use tubers for anything but taking cuttings  :)
You will prob be to late to get cuttings this year ( i ordered mine last October ! )

I am  interested in showing-does this mean cuttings give better blooms?do you know any good websites Icould learn from?Thanks in advance.

[Deb P]

I would be furious too, you ordered early and still got all those substitutes!

I have had a bit of a disappointing experience with some dahlia tubers this year, I bought two bags of 8 tubers selected by colour, with the intention of potting them up and taking cuttings. However, out of 16, only 10 grew at all! I decided to take it up with the garden centre I got them from (that I don't usually visit much due to its location), but did not expect to get much joy. They said on the 'phone they had sold out of dahlias now, but come down and they 'would see what they could do'.

To my suprise when I got there they had found three bags of the same dahlias I had purchased , so replaced both bags for me! So I am now potting up another 16 tubers, hope they do a bit better! I am only a novice dahlia grower, just want some flowers for the plots and at home...there is a dahlia 'shower' on our site, and they are fantastic, I have no intentions of trying to compete!

[Nemesia]

sorry to read about the substitutes.You obviously know about Dahlias so I wonder could you let me know if the cuttings you are talking about actually flower in the first season. I was thinking of buying some as they were cheaper than tubers but didn't think they would flower.

The ones I grew from seed did. They were Bishops Children and I didn't like them very much. This year I hope my pompom ones will be better. There is a lady at our show who always wins a 1st for a perfect single tiny pompom.

[Robert_Brenchley]

If they don't have the original variety in stock, I think they should at least ring first and ask what you want them to do!

[zigzig]

Before going away, we always check reviews on holiday watchdog and a couple of other sites. Usually they offer a 'reply service for the hotels', so that they can respond as well. Only fair since most satisfied customers do not always say so,  those with a gripe sometimes complain about daft things like one I read complained about the hotel being full of foreigners.

Anyway, after reading this, and having read other complaints about suppliers. I thought I would look to see if there is a Gardener's reviews site we could vent on.

http://davesgarden.com/

Was one, it says it is world wide but is actually American. So not actually ideal for the UK.